[THE PRESIDENT (LORD JUSTICE LAWRENCE, Member for the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland) continues]

[Page 8]

From the earliest days of the NSDAP, anti-Semitism had
occupied a prominent place in National Socialist thought and
propaganda. The Jews, who were considered to have no right
to German citizenship, were held to have been largely
responsible for the troubles with which the Nation was
afflicted following on the war of l914 to 18. Furthermore,
the antipathy to the Jews was intensified by the insistence
which was laid upon the superiority of the Germanic race and
blood. The second chapter of Book 1 of Mein Kampf is
dedicated to what may be called the "Master Race" theory,
the doctrine of Aryan superiority over all other races, and
the right of Germans in virtue of this superiority to
dominate and use other peoples for their own ends. With the
coming of the Nazis into power in 1933, persecution of the
Jews became official state policy. On 1st April, 1933, a
boycott of Jewish enterprises was approved by the Nazi Reich
Cabinet, and during the following years a series of anti-
Semitic laws was passed, restricting the activities of Jews
in the civil service, in the legal profession, in journalism
and in the armed forces. In 9/1935, the so-called Nuremberg
Laws were passed, the most important effect of which was to
deprive Jews of German citizenship. In this way the
influence of Jewish elements on the affairs of Germany was
extinguished, and one more potential source of opposition to
Nazi policy was rendered powerless.

In any consideration of the crushing of opposition, the
massacre of 30th June, 1934 must not be forgotten. It has
become known as the "Roehm Purge" or "the blood bath" and
revealed the methods which Hitler and

[Page 9]

his immediate associates, including the Defendant Goering,
were ready to employ to strike down all opposition and
consolidate their power. On that day Roehm, the Chief of
Staff of the SA since 1931, was murdered by Hitler's orders,
and the "Old Guard" of the SA was massacred without trial
and without warning. The opportunity was taken to murder a
large number of people who at one time or another had
opposed Hitler.

The ostensible ground for the murder of Roehm was that he
was plotting to overthrow Hitler, and the Defendant Goering
gave evidence that knowledge of such a plot had come to his
ears. Whether this was so or not it is not necessary to
determine.

On 3 July the Cabinet approved Hitler's action and described
it as "legitimate self-defense by the State."

Shortly afterwards Hindenburg died, and Hitler became both
Reich President and Chancellor. At the Nazi-dominated
plebiscite, which followed, 38 million Germans expressed
their approval, and with the Reichswehr taking the oath of
allegiance to the Fuehrer, full power was now in Hitler's
hands.

Germany had accepted the dictatorship with all its methods
of terror, and its cynical and open denial of the rule of
law.

Apart from the policy of crushing the potential opponents of
their regime, the Nazi Government took active steps to
increase its power over the German population. In the field
of education, everything was done to ensure that the youth
of Germany was brought up in the atmosphere of National
Socialism and accepted National Socialist teachings. As
early as 7th April, 1933, the law reorganizing the civil
service had made it possible for the Nazi Government to
remove all "subversive and unreliable teachers" and this
was followed by numerous other measures to make sure that
the schools were staffed by teachers who could be trusted to
teach their pupils the full meaning of the National
Socialist creed. Apart from the influence of National
Socialist teaching in the schools, the Hitler Youth
Organisation was also relied upon by the Nazi Leaders for
obtaining fanatical support from the younger generation. The
Defendant Von Schirach, who had been Reich Youth Leader of
the NSDAP since 1931, was appointed Youth Leader of the
German Reich in June, 1933. Soon all the youth organisations
had been either dissolved or absorbed by the Hitler Youth,
with the exception of the Catholic Youth. The Hitler Youth
was organized on strict military lines, and as early as
1933, the Wehrmacht was cooperating in providing pre-
military training for the Reich Youth.

The Nazi Government endeavored to unite the Nation in
support of their policies through the extensive use of
propaganda. A number of agencies was set up, whose duty was
to control and influence the press, the radio, films,
publishing firms, etc., in Germany, and to supervise
entertainment and cultural and artistic activities. All
these agencies came under Goebbels' Ministry of the People's
Enlightenment and Propaganda, which together with a
corresponding organisation in the NSDAP and the Reich
Chamber of Culture, was ultimately responsible for
exercising this supervision. The Defendant Rosenberg played
a leading part in disseminating the National Socialist
doctrines on behalf of the Party, and the Defendant
Fritzsche, in conjunction with Goebbels, performed the same
task for the State.

The greatest emphasis was laid on the supreme mission of the
German People to lead and dominate by virtue of their Nordic
blood and racial purity; and the ground was thus being
prepared for the acceptance of the idea of German world
supremacy.

[Page 10]

Through the effective control of the radio and the press,
the German People, during the years which followed 1933,
were subjected to the most intensive propaganda in
furtherance of the regime. Hostile criticism, indeed
criticism of any kind, was forbidden, and the severest
penalties were imposed on those who indulged in it.

Independent judgment, based on freedom of thought, was
rendered quite impossible.

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